Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

HISTORICAL WRITINGS IN ENGLAND.—The literature of history has been enriched by British authors with important works besides those named above. Grote and Thirlwall each composed histories of Greece which are the fruit of thorough and enlightened scholarship. The work of Grote is a vindication of the Athenian democracy, a view the antipode of that taken in the work on Grecian history by Mitford. An elaborate work on the History of the Romans under the Empire is one of several historical productions of Charles Merivale. Stanhope [Lord Mahon] composed a narrative of the War of the Spanish Succession, and other useful histories. Sir W. F. P. Napier wrote a History of the War in the Peninsula, in which the campaigns of Wellington in Spain are described by an author who took part in them. The constitutional history of England has been treated with satisfactory learning and judgment by Hallam, May, and Stubbs. The Puritan revolution has been described with masterly skill and judicial fairness by S. R. Gardiner. In the earlier field, Mr. Edward A. Freeman labored with distinguished success, the History of the Norman Conquest being his principal work in this branch of historical inquiry. J. R. Green is the author of an attractive history of the English people. J. A. Froude wrote with engaging literary art a History of England in the Reign of Elizabeth, which attempts, in the preliminary part, an apology for the character and conduct of Henry VIII. Spencer Walpole has written a History of England since 1815. Ramsay has written the Foundations of England, Angevin England, Lancaster, and York. John Hill Burton, a Scottish author, educated as a lawyer, composed vigorously written histories of Scotland and of the reign of Queen Anne. Lecky wrote in a pleasing style a History of England in the Eighteenth Century, besides a History of Rationalism in Europe, and a History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. In ecclesiastical history, Milman, whose leading work is the History of Latin Christianity, Dean Stanley, and Bishop Creighton have been the principal writers.

ENGLISH NOVELISTS.—The series of "Waverley novels" by Walter Scott (1771-1832) had an unbounded popularity. Pervaded by a cheerful, healthy tone, they presented fascinating pictures of life and manners, and kindled a fresh sympathy with the Middle Ages and with the spirit of chivalry. The poems of Scott depicted, in a metrical form, like picturesque scenes, and knightly combats and adventures. The fictions of Scott gave rise to a school of writers, one of whom was G. P. R. James (1801-1860). A new and different type of novel appeared, in connection with which the names of Dickens (1812-1870) and Thackeray (1811-1863) are preëminent. Both are humorists; in Dickens especially, humor runs into broad caricature. Both present pictures of society and of common life. They illustrate the tendency of the novel at present to rely for its attraction upon scenes and incidents of ordinary life, and the minute portraiture of manners and of character. Dickens owes his popularity largely to the unique sort of drollery and the genuine pathos that are mingled in his pages. Thackeray is a satirist, with a keen eye to detect the weaknesses of humanity, but with a deep well of sympathy, veiled, however, and sedulously guarded from sentimentalism, by a tone of banter and a semblance of cynicism. Measured by their popularity with the cultivated class, the novels of Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) stand next in rank to the productions last referred to. In some of her tales, the artistic motive and spirit are qualified by the didactic aim, or the underlying "tendency,"—the purpose to teach, or to promote a favorite cause,—which has become a frequent characteristic in modern fiction. Among the other English novelists, Bulwer (1805-1873), whose later stories are free from the immorality that stains the earlier, is one of the most widely read. The novels of Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) are among the justly popular productions in this department. Among the novelists of the late Victorian Era were Charles Keade, Blackmore, Stevenson, Kipling, Meredith, Hardy, and Mrs. Humphry Ward.

ENGLISH POETS.—Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), the author of The Princess, In Memoriam, and the Idylls of the King, held the first place among the poets of his day. An adept in the metrical art, he combines in these mature productions, with terseness of diction and fresh, striking imagery, deep reflection and sympathy with the intellectual questionings and yearnings of the time. In his lyrical poems the fullness of his power is seen. He was, without question, a consummate literary artist. Browning (1812-1889), careless of rhythmical art, with a defiance of form, but with dramatic power, in his descent to "the under-currents" of the soul, placed himself open to the reproach of obscurity. Among English poets of high merit in the recent period stand the names of the delightful humorist Thomas Hood (1798-1845), Arthur Clough (1819-1861), and more recently, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888).

With this reference to the poets may be coupled the name of the most eloquent and suggestive of the English writers on art, John Ruskin.

THEOLOGY IN ENGLAND.—Theological scholarship in Great Britain, after a long season of partial eclipse, again shone forth in the present period. Critical works relating to the Scriptures have been produced, which are on a level with the best Continental learning. About 1833, there began at Oxford what has been called the "Tractarian movement," from a series of "Tracts for the Times," relating to theology and the Church, which were issued by its promoters. The party thus originating were called "Puseyites," as Dr. Edward Pusey (1800-1882), the author of learned commentaries, and of works in other departments of divinity, was their acknowledged leader. They formed one branch of the class called "High Churchmen." They laid great emphasis on the doctrine of the "apostolic succession" of the ministry, the necessity and efficacy of the sacraments administered by them, and the importance of visible ecclesiastical unity. They claimed to stand in the "middle path" between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. One of the leading associates of Pusey was John Keble (1792-1866), the poet, author of The Christian Year. The most eminent writer in this group of theologians was John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who won general admiration by the subtlety of his genius and its rare felicity of expression. He entered the Church of Rome, and was advanced to the rank of a cardinal. One of the principal literary undertakings of the recent period is the Revision of the Authorized Version of the Bible, by associated companies of English and American scholars. In the long catalogue of influential writers in theology, it is practicable to refer here to a few suggestive names. Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) was equally noted as a glowing preacher, an eloquent defender of the Christian faith, and a lucid expounder of the Calvinistic system. Edward Irving (1792-1834) was a pulpit orator of unsurpassed eloquence in his day, whose peculiar view as to the restoration of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, that were granted in the apostolic age, gave rise to a religious body calling itself the "Catholic Apostolic Church." Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872) was one of the leaders of the "liberal," or "Broad Church," portion of the English Episcopal Church. His writings have exerted a strong influence. In the same general direction, but of a more critical and argumentative tone, were Richard Whately (1787-1863), Archbishop of Dublin; and Thomas Arnold, who, in addition to his influence as a teacher, classical scholar, and historian, engaged actively in discussions on the questions relating to Church and State.

LITERATURE IN AMERICA: POEMS AND TALES.—The period which we are now considering witnessed a gratifying development of belles-lettres and historical literature in the United States. At the outset, two writers appeared who acquired a transatlantic fame. Washington Irving (1783-1859) in 1818 published The Sketch Book, in a series of pamphlets. It had been preceded by Knickerbocker's History of New York and other humorous publications. Among his later writings were included the Life of Columbus, the Life of Mohammed, and the Life of Washington. The refinement and charm of his style, which brought back the simplicity of Goldsmith, satisfied the foreign critics who had ridiculed the florid rhetoric of previous American authors. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) published The Spy, the first of his novels, which attracted much attention, in 1821. This was followed, two years later, by The Pioneers, the first of the famous "Leatherstocking" series of novels, in which Indian life and manners were portrayed. Cooper was also the founder of the "sea-novel," a line of fiction in which he was followed by an English writer, Marryat (1792-1848). Richard H. Dana and Fitz-Greene Halleck were poets who had a much higher than the merely negative merit of freedom from tumidity, the bane of the earlier American bards. Not only in verse, but also in his prose tales, Dana manifested genius. Several later poets, acknowledged at home and abroad, well deserve the name. Such are Bryant (1794-1878), whose poems, pensive and elevated in their tone, lack neither vigor nor finish; Longfellow (1807-1882), a poet of exquisite culture, whose purity of sentiment, as well as polish and melody of diction, have made him a favorite in both Europe and America; Whittier (1807-1892), whose spirited productions are pervaded with a glowing love of liberty and humanity. Lowell (1819-1891) has justly earned fame as a poet and a critic; and, as a poet, in both serious and humorous compositions. The "Biglow Papers" are without a rival in the species of humor that characterize them. Distinction as a poet and a prose writer belongs likewise to Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), who was especially successful as an author of "poems of society." Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), faulty in his moral spirit as he was wayward in his conduct, exhibited, both in his poems and tales, which are unique in their character, the traits of a wild and somber genius. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), admired as a poet, but more generally as an essayist, valuing insight above logic, has commented on nature, man, and literature with so rare a penetration and felicity of expression that Matthew Arnold has placed his productions on a level with the Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In the list of American novelists the foremost name is that of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his romances the subtle analysis of the workings of conscience and sensibility, in particular the obscure—including the morbid-action of these powers, is combined with perfection of style and of literary art. The novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe, especially those which relate to slavery and depict negro character, have had a world-wide currency. Among other novelists were Paulding and Sedgwick, and more recently, Howells, James, Bret Harte, Cable, and Aldrich. The most distinguished humorist has been S. M. Clemens (Mark Twain).

Good work has been done by Americans in literary history and criticism. The History of Spanish Literature, by George Ticknor, is the fruit of many years of labor by a competent scholar.

HISTORICAL WRITINGS IN AMERICA.—Creditable works have been produced in America in the department of historical literature. The lives of Washington and Franklin, and other biographical and historical writings of much value, have been composed or edited by Jared Sparks. George Bancroft (1800-1891) published, in successive editions, the results of extensive researches in the history of the United States. Works on the same subject have been published by Richard Hildreth and many others. John G. Palfrey is the author of an excellent history of New England. William H. Prescott by his History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, his histories of Spanish conquest in America, and his fragment on the reign of Philip II. of Spain, has deservedly attained to a high distinction on both sides of the Atlantic. The same may be said of John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877), in his Rise and Progress of the Dutch Republic. The history of French colonization and of the contests of France in America has been detailed with thoroughness and skill by Francis Parkman. Other prominent writers have been John Fiske, Justin Winsor, Henry. Adams, James F. Rhodes, and A. T. Mahan.

AMERICAN WRITERS ON LAW ANS POLITICS.—American writers on law embrace names of world-wide celebrity. Among them are Henry Wheaton, in international law, a science to which Woolsey and Lawrence have made valuable contributions; James Kent, whose Commentaries on American Law is a work held in high honor by the legal profession; and Joseph Story, a jurist and legal writer of distinguished merit. The speeches and other productions of Webster, Calhoun, Clay, John Quincy Adams, Edward Everett, Seward, Sumner, form a valuable body of political writings. The works of Francis Lieber, a German by birth, and the treatise on Political Science by Theodore D. Woolsey, are important contributions to the branch of knowledge to which they relate.

PHILOLOGY IN AMERICA.—On the catalogue of students of language, the name of Noah Webster (1758-1843) is prominent, through his English Dictionary, the fruit of many years of arduous labor; a work that since his death has appeared in successive and improved editions. Another successful laborer in the same field was Joseph E. Worcester (1784-1865), likewise the author of a copious and valuable lexicon of the English language. George P. Marsh, an erudite Scandinavian scholar, wrote also on the Origin and History of the English Language. In the departments of classical learning, of Oriental study, and of general philology, there have appeared other American authors of acknowledged merit, e.g. William D. Whitney.